Chart Review: 1st November 2024
Making sense of a nation’s musical tastes.
The most interesting news in the world of charts is a triptych of entries from Tyler, The Creator’s new LP Chromakopia. I’ve not been keeping too close an eye on Tyler’s work since the Odd Future heyday of the early 2010s, and the albums he released immediately after his most notorious period weren’t to my taste. I liked Igor, though, so I got on this one soon after its release. Recency bias aside, I think it’s his best album to date; I don’t think he’s ever put something out this thematically coherent. Without being an exercise in oversharing or a whine fest, it’s as honest and revealing as he’s ever been. The album only came out on Monday, so to get three tunes in the Top 40 is some going - he’s come a long way since being banned from the country by Theresa May.
“Darling, I” is at (24). Like a lot of this album, it feels to me like Tyler is returning to his old sound, indebted to The Neptunes and replete with cheerfully shrill keyboards. I can’t say I’ve studied his last four or so albums very closely but it’s a while before I can recall him putting out something this direct and hooky. Lyrically I think he’s around his best, too - he’s not breaking a ton of new ground with a song about how his career and personality make settling down quite a tough ask, but he strikes a great balance. He’s grown up and reflective but he’ll still throw in a slur or a boast about his awards success.
“Noid”, the record’s first single, cracks the Top 40, jumping 34 points to (16). This is one of those singles that I wasn’t especially enamoured of in isolation, but hearing it in the context of the album, I liked it a lot more. This is a fresh sound for Tyler, with crazed backing vocals and a beat that has a ton of room to breathe. Perhaps unsurprisingly for a dude who has been (in)famous since his early 20s, Tyler’s relationship to celebrity is complex and difficult, and as the title suggests this is a four-and-a-half minute panic attack of a song. The record on a whole is all over the place but somehow cohesive, and “Noid” encapsulates that on one track. He throws a load of different movements and ideas against the wall, and it all adds up.
With the usual first track on the album caveat in place, “St. Chroma” is at (15). More than ever you can chalk this one up to it being the record’s opener because it really does serve as the mood setter for the whole project far more than it stands up as a song in its own light. That’s not to say it isn’t a cool listen, but it’s hard to imagine too many people are sticking this track on to vibe to. I’m not nearly enough of a statistician to say what it means that the second track (“Rah Tah Tah”, my pick for best tune along with the closer) hasn’t cracked the charts - are people switching off or listening through the whole album? In any rate, cool to see three songs like this on the Top 40.
At (7) is Lady Gaga with “Disease”, who makes a welcome return to solo work after that snoozefest with Bruno Mars. This is pretty good stuff but I can’t see it entering the pantheon of Gaga hits. As per with the performer, it’s over the top stuff, with one of the loudest choruses I’ve heard in a long time. She is screaming her head off; there are few around who’d have the pipes to just about make it work. I’m more keen on the slightly more restrained, if not especially sticky, verses. Even if it’s not a masterfully written effort, it sounds great. There’s a properly rumbling bassline, and bitcrushed drums that sound like the crack of a pixelated whip. It’s been a funny old 2024 for Gaga on the whole, but this is proof she can still break big.
Now for the big news - Sabrina Carpenter has been deposed at long last. “Bed Chem” at (9) is her last remaining Top 10 - the seasons have truly turned. Rather excitingly, “Sailor Song” by Gigi Perez is at the top. I think this was previously a song of the week, and it still sounds great - it’s emotive polished folk that loses no character for its slickness and deals in specifics. This is an independently released Number One; I note that Perez was previously signed to Interscope so I don’t think this is quite such a bolt from the blue as it can seem, but that’s neither here nor there when it comes to the quality of the tune. Well deserved, a star of the future quite possibly.
Pick of the week: Tyler, The Creator: “Darling, I”
